Sophie Cunningham Stepped Into the UFC Octagon and Left With More Than a Win

Sophie Cunningham has been making headlines for more than just her jumper lately. The Indiana Fever guard showed up at UFC 329 in Las Vegas on Saturday not as a courtside spectator but as a ring girl, and she made the most of it.

Cunningham worked the cage at T-Mobile Arena between rounds, flashing the same energy that’s made her one of the WNBA’s more quotable personalities. But the real moment came after the main event.

She linked up with Max Holloway inside the Octagon after he knocked out Conor McGregor in just 69 seconds. They recreated Cunningham’s now-famous pointing meme, the same one she used during a heated exchange with Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner a few weeks ago. The UFC’s official Instagram account posted the photo with a simple caption: “Same energy.”

How a WNBA player ended up in the UFC

It turns out Cunningham has a direct line to UFC president Dana White. She told him she wanted to try being a ring girl, maybe half-joking at first, and White said yes on the spot. That’s how a 29-year-old guard from Missouri ended up walking the cage in front of a sold-out crowd.

Fans ate it up. Comments flooded in calling her “the baddest” and “the queen of the WNBA.” One fan wrote she “lasted more than Conor in there,” referencing McGregor’s quick exit due to a blown knee. Another said the WNBA is “too small for her” and that she’s “truly gone mainstream.”

Holloway, for his part, seemed to enjoy the crossover moment. After the fight he joked about McGregor’s injury, saying, “What can I say, I had him weak in the knees, I guess.” It was a rematch seven years in the making, and it ended almost exactly the same way as their first fight in 2013, when McGregor also hurt his knee.

Cunningham didn’t stay in the Octagon long, but the photo is already doing the rounds online. For a player who’s built a following by being unapologetically herself, this felt less like a stunt and more like a natural next step. She’s got the meme, the moment, and maybe a new career option if the WNBA thing doesn’t work out.